In electric arc welding as described in Bloch 5,708,253, repeatable quality in electric arc welding for specific applications requires that the procedure used in the welding process be the same or within certain constraints. In addition, the weldor or operator assigned to execute the procedure must be qualified to perform the specific welding operation by a prior testing and prior actual experience. Furthermore, even a weldor qualified for a specific procedure can lose the specific skill required after long periods without actually performing the welding operation. Consequently, qualification of the operator should be assured so the welding operation can meet the standard necessary for acceptance of the welding result. In addition, it is necessary that the parameters involved in the welding procedure specification be met during the welding operation. In the past, the welding procedure was manually loaded into the digital process controller of the electric arc welder by various interfaces connected to the controller. In addition, items of the WPS, such as wire feed speed, wire specification, shielding gas, preheat, impass heat, post heat, etc., were set according to written or stored criteria constituting the welding procedure specification. Implementing this technique, together with assuring qualification of the operator presented difficulties. The welding by the weldor was performed irrespective of compliance with the various parameters constituting the welding procedure specification and irrespective of the actual qualification of the weldor performing the welding operation. Consequently, detailed record keeping and checking of the various parameters preparatory to the welding operation were necessary, but quite complex. When it was determined that the welding procedure was not followed or the operator was not adequately qualified, the resulting welding operation was rejected or required subsequent remedial processing. Consequently, a procedure to assure proper welding to a detailed specification was complicated and expensive. It required a substantial amount of record keeping and historical maintenance of data associated with the many welds performed in the field.
Goldblatt U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,512 and Bobeczko U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,810 disclose bar codes on a wire reel to be read when the reel is loaded onto a welder. A process sheet is also read by a bar code to correlate with the wire. These patents are incorporated by reference as background technology.